stupidnewbe, I think you've got an issue with your unit. Now way should it have such short battery life. I just heard from a good friend that his goes beyond that by quite a bit. Something is going on that you ought to consult Sightmark about. If it were mine, I'd be on the phone with them about it. I've got one on order, so I ought to be able to give you some first hand experience with the battery life on mine. I also ordered the rechargeable pack to go with it, but I'll run it without that to see what sort of battery life to expect. I don't expect mine till sometime next week, so the coyotes are going to have to get along without the thermal pressure here. Ha!